How And Why Did John Cena Learn Chinese?

John Cena is a famous pro wrestler, successful movie star and well-known for being an all-around funny guy. Could that be why he’s also a successful language learner? 

John Cena speaks Mandarin Chinese. And he has a talent that we can all learn from that allows him to give speeches, interviews and pretty much anything you can throw at him. All in a second language.

But why does John Cena speak Chinese? Don't worry, we'll get to that.

Pay close attention to how John Cena learned Chinese because there’s a lot to learn from him – including a special flashcard technique that we should all be using.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this post:

Why Does John Cena Speak Chinese?

OK, let’s be real – no-one expects a giant wrestler from Massachusetts to break out in Mandarin Chinese – am I right?  

But that’s exactly what John Cena did – and he did it in front of millions. Jaws dropped everywhere, the Earth stopped spinning.  It’s pretty badass, if you ask me!

So, what’s his story? WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) had actually been wanting to expand into China, but it wasn’t easy.

If Cena could be a star in China, just think how massive their audience could get.  

So WWE sends him to China for some promotional events, and at first, he’s just trying to bridge the gap, right? Next thing you know, he’s madly in love with the country!

And he saw a golden opportunity – he figured if he could connect with Chinese fans in their own language, it would be a game-changer. So how do you do that?

He just dove headfirst into Mandarin. And when Chinese people heard him they were pleasantly surprised.

But I don’t know if you’ve heard the news – learning Mandarin isn’t exactly a walk in the park! And I'm going to crack open his “talent” in just a bit.

So what do you want to know first – how John Cena learned Chinese, or how bad he is?

How Did John Cena Learn Chinese?

John Cena didn't learn Chinese with Rosetta Stone. Actually, it was through a free WWE programme – they paid for him to get fluent in Mandarin. 

But Mandarin is one of the hardest languages on the planet, as the trusty Foreign Service Institute chart will tell you – we’re talking category 5 hard!

If you want to know more about those categories, take a look at my post on how long does it take to learn a language?

How did John Cena go from barely knowing a word to giving speeches in Chinese? (Yep, speeches – keep reading!)

Well, he didn’t just wing it – he had a game plan.

First, he got himself a private tutor who came over for 2 hours a day – that’s what WWE’s money was for, 

And I’m quite impressed with how he really threw himself into the language – TV shows, podcasts, the works. He even lived in China for 5 months!

It’s all about immersion, right? And Cena is all about those flashcards, too. He’s mentioned that he used flashcards a lot to build up his vocabulary. 

You know, old-school but super effective. Especially when there are 3000 Chinese characters to learn!

And he still uses them now – he says when it’s time to relax in the evening, he always puts his flashcards first, before he gets lazy on Instagram. 

That’s an excellent chill time rule to give yourself, by the way: first flashcards, then the rest! 

But does John Cena's Chinese sound right?

So, there’s one tiny problem with Mandarin Chinese – learning it isn’t just about memorising words. It has sounds that don’t exist in English, and they’re really tough to mimic!

Let’s just say when he started putting himself out there on Weibo – that’s basically the Chinese Twitter – it was a pretty bold move!

No wonder Chinese people made that hilarious John Cena meme. If you don't know what I'm talking about, there’s a certain viral video that Cena will never live down.

Bing Chilling: The John Cena Chinese Meme

Alright, let’s talk about this, shall we? 

So there was John Cena, all serious, trying to show off his Mandarin, when all of a sudden he starts talking about ice-cream.

Not quite what he was going for, but hey, we’ve all been there! 

So what's going on here? 

If you haven’t seen the viral video, John Cena has practically changed the way Chinese people pronounce their own word for ice-cream.  

He was trying to say “I like ice cream very much, but Fast and Furious 9 is better than ice cream.”

But all anyone heard was the funny way he pronounced ice-cream – “bing chilling” – and overnight, it became a meme in China, Japan and Singapore – and now they’re all saying it that way on purpose.

I'll get to how John Cena can fix his Chinese pronunciation issue in the next section.   

Is John Cena Fluent In Chinese?

Let’s start with his accent.

The first thing that jumps out at me when I listen to him speak Chinese is he sounds American – his American accent is strong! 

In the ice-cream video, he pronounces the consonant of qí like the English “ch” sound, instead of the Mandarin “ts” sound.

But the bigger problem is his Chinese tones are all over the place.

So he kind of botches his tones, and these are important in Chinese. There are four main tones and a neutral one. Just one wrong pitch in your voice can change the meaning of a word entirely.

Imagine you want to say you’re excited about wrestling but accidentally say you’re excited about dumplings:

Something like that! 

And when you watch John Cena's Chinese apology video in a second, you’re going to see why it matters so much. He had to make a video to apologise to China. Yes, the whole country.

But for some reason, it made a lot of people crazy. The story is that John Cena got in big trouble for saying Taiwan is a country.

He said sorry. And I hope they forgave him.

Here's my analysis of John Cena speaking Chinese in this apology video.

First of all – it's very brave to apologise in the same language you made the mistake in!

But here’s where John Cena's Mandarin goes wonky.

First, in Chinese, you don’t say things like “Hello China”- that’s an English way of expressing it, but they wouldn’t say it this way. 

He’s pretty much translating directly from English. It's the same thing when he keeps repeating “so so so.” We speak like that – Chinese people don't. 

But his tones? Oh boy… 

Instead of using the right Mandarin tones, he follows an English pitch pattern.

So guess what he really said?

He should’ve used the falling-rising tone. I mean, I’m pretty sure Chinese people knew what he meant, but do they still like him? 

If John Cena’s tones are so bad, and his accent is horrible, why is he still so maddeningly good at Mandarin Chinese?! 

Is there some magic thing we all need to know?  

Why John Cena’s Mandarin is So Good

In my book, he gets an A+. And I’ll tell you why. 

First off, despite all the hiccups, his Mandarin isn’t just okay – it’s actually pretty impressive. 

The guy’s vocabulary is great, and he can speak really fast. And in certain interviews you can hear he's speaking off-the-cuff.

I’ve never actually heard him make grammar mistakes.

But more than that, he uses cultural references and idiomatic expressions, which shows he’s really getting into the heart of the language. 

But the absolute best part of all of this is, in case it wasn’t obvious at the start, John Cena was brave enough to do something 99% of us would never dream of doing even in our native tongue.

He gave an entire speech in Mandarin to promote WWE in Shanghai! 

He’s not afraid to speak, even when he knows it might not come out perfectly. And that’s what makes his Mandarin so good. Well, that’s a relief – we won’t worry about Cena’s American accent anymore.

But here’s something interesting – after all that effort, you might wonder: do Chinese people actually like John Cena?

I hate to break it to you, but Cena didn’t achieve everything WWE hoped for in China.

But what he did gain was a huge fan base and they even gave him his playful nickname: Zhao Xina.

Proof that they appreciate his efforts! 

After all, it’s not about being perfect, it’s about showing up and trying your best.

Why Does John Cena Speak Chinese? FAQ

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.